CmapTools is a free program used by colleges around the world for creating concept maps: graphical tools for organizing and representing our knowledge about a particular issue or system. In CmapTools, concepts (boxes or nouns) are linked together by propositions (lines or verbs) to form a network that visually demonstrates connections between issue components. By creating a visual map of what we know, one can open up new ways of understanding how that system functions and how its components interrelate; this is what distinguishes CmapTools from more traditional (e.g., verbal) modes of thinking and communication.

* Use our ready-made thinking guides * Make a new thinking guide from scratch * Use it to set class projects * Print them out (they can go as big as A0) * Change and customise thinking guides, you can add or change text, shapes, images etc. * As a teacher, you can set up the sequence that you want the thinking guide to be revealed in, so that you can stage the thinking activity * You can fill in a thinking guide and complete your project on the website * You can present your project * You can send your thinking guide to a whole group of people * You can submit a thinking guide for comments, so it can't be edited but just reviewed * Work in groups on the same thinking guide